2012-05-30

Kagan would counter that America won what he calls "the war that never happened," the one with the Soviet Union, but, given the way the others turned out, it is perhaps just as well it never happened. A great scholar of the American way of war, he's fascinated with every aspect except victory. "The United States remains unmatched. It is far and away the most powerful nation the world has ever known. . . . The superior expenditures underestimate America's actual superiority in military capability. American land and air forces are equipped with the most advanced weaponry, are the most experienced in actual combat, and would defeat any competitor in a head-to-head battle."

But put 'em up against illiterate goatherds with string and fertilizer, and you'll be tied down for a decade.

However, as has been evident in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. enemies can blow up even the best armored vehicles with homemade bombs made from cheap fertilizer, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told an audience in an address at Harvard in April.

"The issue here is not whether it costs $10 million or $17 million," says Loren Thompson, a military analyst at the Lexington Institute and defense industry consultant. "When an enemy can destroy it for a couple hundred dollars, that's the worst cost-exchange ratio I've ever seen."

Thompson points out that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan weren't fought against front-line foes.

"We need to understand that we have been fighting very under-resourced adversaries," Thompson says. "They nearly fought us to a standstill. What would a country with real capabilities do to us?"

Now, farmers in southeast Turkey appear to have uncovered the latest Israeli plot against Turkey, one that turns tiny birds into flapping spies. As the Turkish daily HaberTurk first reported, a group of villagers near the city of Gaziantep discovered a small dead bird (from a breed known as the European Bee Eater) with a metal band around its leg that read "Israel." As if that wasn't suspicious enough, the bird had what seemed to be a very enlarged nostril, leading one local official to suggest that perhaps the bird had been implanted with some kind of microchip or spying device.

2012-05-04

So, uh, what would they do? The article calls for a lot of them to be soldiers: presumably peacekeeping forces being pot-shotted at by tin-pot African dictators. But we've seen that they can't be involved in oilsands, or manufacturing, or financial services without incurring the wrath of the leftwing political elite.

What's left? 100,000,000 people watching CBC and waiting for treatment in hospitals?